


Off Track Just a Little Bit

by Konfessor2U



Series: Advent Calendar for Facebook prompts from Sherlockian Lovers page [11]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Advent Calendar, Christmas memories, Day 11, Facebook prompts, Gen, Lionel trains 1956, When they were young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 13:05:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1081356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Konfessor2U/pseuds/Konfessor2U
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Greg's first Christmas alone. Some Christmas decorating jogs his memories from his childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Off Track Just a Little Bit

Greg sat in his living room rifling through old dilapidated cardboard boxes filled with Christmas decorations. On his day off he was going to get the whole flat decorated. It was his favorite season after all and he wasn’t even the least bit sad that it was his first Christmas divorced from his wife.

From the bottom of the box he pulled a model train engine. It was a Lionel 1956 model, older than himself but no less part of his childhood. His uncle had brought them home from his trip to the United States and was beyond ecstatic to set this up with the family.

Running a thumb over the lettering on the side of the engine, he smiled fondly remembering the night his father set up the train for the first time when he was just 8 years old. Everyone in the family was gathered in the sitting room as he his dad put the train tracks together end to end and plugged the controller into the wall.

 

_“Oh just look at the way his eyes light up. This is so wonderful.” His mother exclaimed, clutching her heart and smiling like a fool. His uncle was grinning just as much as he was and ruffled his hair._

_He jumped, and then giggled, when his father made the whistle blow as the engine and cars came around the bend. It wasn’t long before he was begging to blow the whistle himself._

_The family watched for hours as the little train engine went around the track again and again. Greg dreamed of trains and of being a conductor for days after the train set was packed up again at the end of the holiday._

Greg let out a long, heavy sigh as if to bring himself out of his memory. He had hoped to one day set out the trains for his own children, but he and his wife never had any. Occasionally, he felt sad about it but it was all in the past and there is no saying that he won’t eventually find someone else. For now, he gently placed the small metal engine back into the box.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the train I had in mind when I wrote this. 
> 
> [Lionel Trains](http://www.train99.com/postwar-o-gauge/lionel-2018-steam-locomotive-1956-59/)
> 
>  
> 
> They are really very enchanting. My father has the 1956 model which he played with as a kid and I remember when I was little, he would set it up as Christmas time. Just last week he took everything out and put it together for my nieces, which are 6 and 8. It is quite magical what such an old thing can do. It's so simple. His memory of the trains is not far from how it was last week to watch my nieces and their excitement, with the adults all standing around, smiling at the innocence of it.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
